Last year on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, just before the Jharkhand elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had started the ‘Dharti Aaba Janjati Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan’ in the name of Dharti Aaba, the popular name of tribal hero Birsa Munda. In this campaign, the PM had said that the government will implement schemes worth Rs 83,300 crore for the development of scheduled tribes in 549 districts, 2740 blocks and 63,000 villages in 30 states of the country. According to the 2011 census, 25 targets were set in this campaign for the 10.45 crore scheduled tribe people in India and it was announced that 17 ministries and departments would work together. In this, it was talked about construction of 1380 km of road, 250 multipurpose centres, 500 Anganwadi centres, 10 hostels, 275 mobile medical units, electrification of 75800 houses.
In the sub-format 10BBB of allocation in the welfare of Scheduled Tribes in the budget format 10B released on 1 February 2025, only Rs 6105.78 crore has been allocated for ‘Dharti Aaba Janjati Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan’ contrary to the announcement. Instead of 17 ministries, only 10 ministries have been mentioned. In this, 424.75 crores have been allocated for health and family welfare, 1 lakh for pure drinking water and sanitation, 1 lakh for new and renewable energy, 15 crores for Panchayat Raj, 10 crores for energy, 2000 crores for rural development, 40 crores for skill development, 15 crores for tourism, 2000 crores for tribal work and only 75 crores for women and child welfare. It is clear that there is a huge difference between the announcements of Prime Minister Modi and his work.
Similarly, before the Lok Sabha elections, the Prime Minister had made big statements in the announcement of ‘Janjati Aadivasi Naya Maha Abhiyan’ (PM Janman) made in Jharkhand. This time the budget has been reduced by about 1000 crores to 6351.99 crores. Similarly, ‘PM Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana’, which has also been praised a lot by the people of BJP and RSS. In that, Rs 4295.40 crore was allocated in 2023-24 which has been further reduced to Rs 4241.97 in the budget of 2024-25.
The government had started the PM Adivasi Adarsh Gram Yojana in which Rs 1000 crore was allocated last year, out of which Rs 127.51 crore was spent and in this financial year it has been reduced to Rs 335.97 crore. Rs 380.40 crore has been allocated under the PM Janjati Vikas Mission, but it cannot be said how much of it will be spent. A total of Rs 129249.75 crore has been given under the Scheduled Tribes Welfare head, which is equal to Rs 124912.62 allocated last year if inflation is considered. It also must be kept in mind that out of the money allocated last year, Rs 1500 crore was not spent at all. Tribal welfare program budget has been increased by only 20 crores from last year. Last year, 6399 crores were allocated for Eklavya Model Residential Schools, out of which 4748.92 crores were spent and this year 7088.60 crores have been allocated. The government had made a big announcement of providing water to every farm, if we see the truth of that, only 100 crores have been allocated for the tribals of the entire country. Thus 40 crores have been cut in the budget of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. Whereas in the hilly and plateau regions where tribals live, water for the farms is a big problem. Last time, 7632.9 crores were allocated in the ST Sub Plan budget for building Samman Griha (toilet) in every village and providing drinking water, out of which only 2885.30 crores were spent and this year about 3000 crores have been cut out of it. Last time, the budget for providing houses and other facilities to tribals in urban areas was Rs 1619.48 crores, out of which only Rs 969.41 crores were spent and this year only Rs 1707.01 crores have been allocated.
The budget of some major tribal areas of the country, which includes the area of North East India, was Rs 1700 crores last time, which has been reduced to Rs 1680 crores. Rs 230 crores were spent for the North East Council last time and the same allocation has been made this time as well. Rs 110 crores were allocated for the Bodoland Development Council last time, out of which only Rs 20 crores were spent and this time only Rs 30 crores have been allocated. For Karbi Anglong, which is a major tribal area of Assam, Rs 61 crores were allocated last time, which has been reduced to Rs 35 crores this time. The allocation for the second major tribal area Andaman Nicobar Islands was Rs 248.98 crore in 2024-25, which has been increased by only Rs 4 crore to Rs 252.55 crore.
Last time Rs 1375.84 crore was allocated for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for tribals, which has been reduced to Rs 970.4 crore this time. The actual expenditure of Kisan Samman Nidhi, which Modi ji himself talks about repeatedly, given to tribal farmers in 2023-24 was Rs 5622.85 crore, which was reduced to Rs 5432 crore in 2024-25. This year it is Rs 5657.50 crore, which is almost equal to the expenditure of 2023-24 and has been reduced when we consider inflation. Rs 5 crore has been cut in the budget of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Rs 8 crore in National Ayush Mission, and Rs 3 crore in Pharmaceutical Education and Research.
If we look at the health budget, the actual expenditure on health infrastructure maintenance in 2023-24 was Rs 1021.82 crore, whereas this time the allocation has been made of Rs 827.65 crore only. Last time Rs 860 crore was allocated for the scheme to generate new employment for tribals, out of which only Rs 599 crore was spent and this time Rs 1730 crore has been allocated, it remains to be seen how much money will be spent out of it. The budget for rural development is almost equal to the budget allocated last year. The budget allocation for old age, widow, disabled pension and family assistance scheme is the same as last year. The actual expenditure in the financial year 2023-24 in MNREGA, an important scheme for providing employment, was Rs 10617.69 crore, against which Rs 10715 crore has been allocated this year which is very small in proportion to the requirement of work and wage rate. The budget of 12498.90 crores allocated last year for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has been reduced to 11675.67 crores. The scheme of free gas connections and transfer of subsidy money to the accounts of the poor, which was launched with much fanfare, has failed and no funds have been allocated for it.
For the 5 kg free ration which is much talked about, 10187.86 crores were spent out of 10169.80 crores last time. This time only 10473.06 crores have been given. The truth is that this ration fulfils the food requirement of a person for 5 days only. A very low allocation of 10150 crores has been made for the tribals in Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. Malnutrition is a big problem in tribal areas. According to our survey conducted in Duddhi area of tribal dominated Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, the haemoglobin level in the blood of tribals in general and especially women, girls and children is very low. As a result, they are victims of diseases like TB, fluorosis, malaria, typhoid. Despite this, the funds allocated for the tribes in the Poshan 2 campaign to eliminate malnutrition have been cut by Rs 140 crore.
At the same time, Rs 15,429.67 crore of the tribal sub plan has been given for highway construction. 2258 crore rupees for new and renewable energy, 1750 crore rupees for the PM Surya Ghar Free Electricity Scheme launched for Adani, 633 crore rupees for the Production Linked Incentive Scheme, 469 crore rupees for semiconductor and display manufacturing, 1478 crore rupees for electronics and information technology, 996.20 crores for telecommunications, out of which 979 crore rupees have been allocated for telecom infrastructure in this budget. All this money is for helping corporate houses and it is not directly related to the development of scheduled tribes.
Thus, if we look at these figures, it becomes clear that the BJP and RSS government makes many announcements in the name of development of tribals but in comparison to that, the budget allocation is very small. On the other hand, a war has been waged against tribals from Chhattisgarh to the entire country. In fact, apart from looting and suppressing the tribals, the Corporate-Hindutva alliance is also engaged in erasing their independent identity. RSS calls the tribals ‘Vanvasi’, through which it means that the tribals do not have their own independent identity and they are Hindus who settled in the forests and mountains. Whereas according to many historians, tribals are those who were already settled here before not only the Aryans but also the Dravidians and they had to go to places like forests and mountains under adverse circumstances. The representation of tribals in government institutions is very low and in higher education institutions, judiciary, media and corporate sector it is nominal. Therefore, today there is a need for special provision and not just a declaration for the Scheduled Tribes.
Dinkar Kapoor State General Secretary, All India People’s Front, Uttar Pradesh
(Translation from original English to Hindi by SR Darapuri, National President, All India Peoples Front)
